The UTEP women's basketball team came into Sunday's showdown with SMU ranked as the 27th best team in the land.

The Miners left clearly the second best team in Conference USA.

With first place in the league at stake, the Mustangs got UTEP in foul trouble early with slashes to the basket, seemed to get better with every possession early in the second half as they shot the bottom out of the baskets, then held off an inspired charge from a UTEP team too proud to get blown out.

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Bret Bloomquist

It added up to an 82-73 SMU victory that moved the Mustangs two games clear of UTEP and everyone else in a conference season that hits the midpoint Thursday.

"They have a good team; we knew that going in. Keena Mays (26 points) is probably the best player in our conference," coach Keitha Adams said after her team, probably needing only a victory to make the Top 25, fell to 17-3 overall and 5-2 in Conference USA. "In order for us to beat them, we can't give up offensive rebounds (SMU had 17 of those). Every time they got one they made us pay for it."

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UTEP will rue some late chances it didn't take advantage of after cutting an 18-point deficit to seven with 5:37 to play, as down the stretch Anete Steinberga (13 points, nine rebounds) missed a pair of front ends of one-and-ones that could have gotten the Miners to within five. The Mustangs (16-4, 7-0) had several huge offensive rebounds late to extend possessions.

The Miners were 9-of-19 from the free-throw line, including 0-of-3 on front ends of one-and-ones.

"We missed free throws, we missed 2-footers, we can't leave those points not putting them on the board," Adams said.

What the Miners really needed to do over was the first part of the second half when SMU looked liked the team that should have been on the verge of a national ranking.

UTEP hung around for a half, which was rather miraculous given that Kelli Willingham, Kayla Thornton (20 points) and Chrishauna Parker (11 rebounds, five assists) spent most of it on the bench with two fouls, and seemed in good shape when that trio took the floor for the second period trailing just 38-34.

Then SMU made 11 of its first 13 shots of the half, including three 3-pointers that didn't come close to touching rim. Suddenly the lead was 64-48 and the Mustangs looked like they were going to house UTEP on its own court.

"They shot the ball really well," Adams said. "I kept thinking in the second half, surely (they would cool off). They have good shooters and we knew that. ...

"When the game was getting away from us, I told them this was a character test. I was proud of them (for the comeback). We just didn't do the little things."

"Coach told us it's a game of runs. They had their run, we had our run," said Jamie Madden, who kept the team close with seven first-half points. "Unfortunately, it was not enough."

"We still didn't win, so obviously we didn't do enough," Willingham said.

The advantage got to 68-50 before UTEP dug down and played some of its best basketball of the year, going on a 13-2 run to give it some hope. Willingham, who didn't play the final 17:20 of the first half after picking up her second foul, scored eight of her 11 points in the charge, but even after getting within seven points, the Miners were in a position where they needed just about everything to go right, and that didn't happen.

They found themselves in that position to begin with because of Mays. SMU took two early losses this season before the junior transfer, who was one of Kansas' best players two years ago, became eligible, and she spent this game polishing her resume for C-USA player of the year. She finished with 26 points, seven assists, five steals and four rebounds.

"She made it look easy," Adams said.

When she wasn't hitting, SMU was getting follow shots. Both teams were poor on the defensive glass, as UTEP had 20 offensive boards of its own and did win in both rebounding (41-38) and second-chance points (20-15), but that isn't as big of an advantage as the Miners usually count on.

"We'll move on," Adams said. "There are a lot of good teams in the conference. I'd be in a different place if we had gotten beat by 30, if we had thrown in the towel. You've got to see some positives even when you don't win."

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 546-6359. Follow him on Twitter @bretbloomquist